As pressure grows for President Obama to close the Guantánamo military prison, we speak with British journalist Victoria Brittain, who has closely covered the military prison for years. Her latest book is "Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror." "Some of the women that I’ve written about are the wives of Guantánamo prisoners. One, in particular, who is like chapter one of the book, is one of my closest...

At a ceremony unveiling a statue in her honor last month, President Obama called Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus a "singular act of disobedience." But nine months before Parks’ historic action, a 15-year-old teenager named Claudette Colvin did the very same thing. She was arrested, and her case led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s order for the desegregation of Alabama’s...

Two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, have been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last August. On Sunday, the teenagers, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, were found delinquent in the sexual assault of the girl who witnesses testified was too drunk to move or speak. The case sparked a national controversy following the emergence of images and social media postings from the night of the assault....

While the world focused on the conclave selecting Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to become pope, a protest took place outside that received far less attention. Protesters demanding a greater role for women in the Catholic Church released pink smoke into the air over the Vatican. Their actions came as many were waiting for white smoke, the signal a new pope had been chosen. We speak with Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the...

Over the past week, political analyst Zerlina Maxwell has received racially fueled death threats for speaking out against rape. Maxwell, who is a rape survivor, appeared on a Fox News segment with Sean Hannity last week about the possibility of arming women to prevent rape. She said the responsibility should lie instead with men. In response to her remarks, Maxwell received a torrent of abuse on social media with commenters saying she deserved...

President Obama has signed into law historic new protections for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault with the expanded reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Initially passed in 1994, the bill lapsed in 2011 after Republicans blocked it over the new protections. The measure was approved after House Republicans finally allowed a vote last week. It includes a landmark addition that empower Native American tribal...

We end our International Women’s Day broadcast with the Indian feminist, activist and thinker Dr. Vandana Shiva. The author of many books, most recently "Making Peace with the Earth," Dr. Shiva discusses the impact on women by what she calls the world’s "violent economic order," and the women-led uproar over sexual violence in India triggered by last year’s brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old...

We look at a major new documentary that tells the story of how women have shaped the United States over the last 50 years through political and personal empowerment. It’s called "Makers: Women Who Make America," and it premieres tonight in a three-hour special on PBS. Narrated by Meryl Streep, the film explores the women’s movement from the publication of Betty Friedan’s "The Feminine Mystique" published...

"If a man knows a woman who is victim or survivor, then he knows what that is like, because it will affect her for the rest of her life," said Jerin Arifa, who danced at an event in Union Square on Valentine’s Day, one of thousands of dance parties held around the world as part of the One Billion Rising campaign to protest violence against women. [includes rush transcript]

People around the world are rising up today and taking to the streets to dance. Their actions are part of a global movement in more than 200 countries to end rape and sexual violence against women called "One Billion Rising," launched by playwright Eve Ensler, creator of "The Vagina Monologues." We speak to Ensler in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she is helping survivors of gender violence. We also air a video...